London Life

The London lowdown: place names

Like all metropoli, London is now wrapped in concrete and tarmac and it’s all too easy to forget her natural origins. From the London Eye, however, one can see essentially a plateau, a river, an estuary and the odd rising hill, but predominately a low-lying mass paying service to its river, the source of so much that gave London her fame and fortune.

And interestingly, we get a true account of the city by examining the origins behind the different names of the places it comprises. They often paint a very innocent, natural and even idyllic scene.

Down in what is now south London were simple natural surroundings. Croydon meant a ‘valley of wild saffron’; Carshalton, a farm, by the spring where cress grows and Bromley a ‘clearing where broom grows’. Broom is rare these days, but this shrub used to cover many clearings with its yellow flowers and also gave its name to Brompton.

There were hills that once were significant with Hendon, a ‘high hill’ on the brow of Greyhound Hill; Sidcup (first recorded as ‘Cetecopp’) a ‘flat-topped hill’ and Neasden, a ‘nose shaped hill’, referring to the small promontory on the ridge of Dollis Hill.

There were areas principally thought of for their trees: Cockfosters, means ‘estate of the chief forester’; Osterley comes from a ‘woodland clearing with a sheepfold’ while Stockwell means a ‘spring by a tree stump’.

There were places for animals. Lambeth, was a ‘landing place for lambs’ and became where the archbishops of Canterbury crossed the river to Westminster; Roehampton was a ‘home farm where the rooks gather’ and was first known as East Hampton, then as Rokehampton (with ‘roke’ being a rook) and Wormwood Scrubs, a ‘scrubland by a wood with snakes’ (with Wormeholte coming from Old English to indicate snakes).

London has parts that suggest places for fruits with Perivale, the ‘valley of the pear trees’; Purley, a ‘wood where pear trees grow’ and Plumstead, the ‘place of the plum trees’ and where the Romans may well have planted orchards.

There were suggestions of the odd settlement itself. Acton meant ‘oak farm’, Chalk Farm, ‘cold cottages’ and Barnes, the ‘place by the barn’ and, first appearing in the Domesday Book, it was where the grain was stored for the manor of Mortlake.

London naturally developed her own religious structures. Harrow, was a ‘heathen temple’; Mortlake, a ‘burial pit’ while Upminster, was a ‘higher minster’, meaning a church.

We can see too the fruits of labour: Chelsea, means a ‘landing place for chalk’, Chiswick, a ‘cheese farm’ and Soho, ‘a hunting cry’ (in the 16th century it was a hunting ground). Hammersmith meanwhile was a ‘place with a hammer smithy’ (ie a forge).

But one must never forget the Thames as the main reason for London as the choice for settling. Holborn means a ‘hollow stream’; Kilburn, a ‘cows’ stream’ (as in ‘cow’s bourne’) and Dulwich (first recorded as Dilwihs by Edgar the Peaceful) is a ‘marshy meadow where dill grows’.

How much more fascinating and romantic it is to consider the above than some of the more prosaic names for places like Kings Cross, Victoria or Knightsbridge.

Adam Jacot de Boinod is the author of “The Meaning of Tingo and Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World” (Penguin Pockets)